On November 29, SONIC MATTER presents two concerts together with Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and André de Ridder. The concerts are part of the Creative Chair Anna Thorvaldsdottir holds at the orchestra in season 2024/25.
The evening concert features three Swiss premieres by Wise Music Composers starts with CATAMORPHOSIS by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, a work for large orchestra that was inspired by the fragile relationship we have to planet Earth.
CATAMORPHOSIS is quite a dramatic piece, but it is also full of hope – perhaps somewhere between the natural and the unnatural, between utopia and dystopia, we can gain perspective and find balance within and with the world around us.
Anna Thorvaldsdottir
Then follows Nico Muhly's organ concerto Register, performed by soloist James McVinnie, who is an old friend of Muhly and also performed the world premiere in 2018. The organ and the orchestra work with and against each other in a conversation that shifts in tone and style, as if the music were speech.
Emergence by Daníel Bjarnason concludes the evening, showing how quietly a large orchestra can play. It was premiered in 2011 by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra at the Dark Music Days Festival, Háskólabíó, Reykjavík, conducted by Bjarnason himself.
Before the evening concert, there will be an artist talk and chamber music by Thorvaldsdottir. Pianist Roy Ranen will perform the solo work Scape and cellist Sebastian Ortega will perform the solo work Transitions.
For more information about the concerts, please see the website of SONIC MATTER.
